Soldotna’s Historical Society and Museum will hold their next membership meeting on Saturday, February 29, from 10 a.m. until noon at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.
The guest speaker will be Branden Bornemann, Executive Director at the Kenai Watershed Forum. Mr. Bornemann will give a presentation on the Historical Soberg House which now houses the Kenai Watershed Forum’s offices. This house is located at Soldotna Creek Park, and was one of the first permanent structures built in Soldotna.
Its unique history is tied to homesteaders and early highway construction crews, built in territorial days by the Alaska Road Commission (ARC). This building was first used as an ARC office, but is still known to many as the Ralph Soberg home. Mr. Soberg was the general foreman for the construction of the road we now know as the Sterling Highway.
Mayor Pete Sprague, offering information on the Soldotna Historical Society: “Soldotna was settled with World War II veterans shorlty after World War II. Of course, indegenous people were here for thousands of years before that. Modern-day history began in 1947. Other homesteaders came to the area after World War II. We’ve got an exhibit of artifacts and a pretty extensive collection both on display to the public and down in the basement there also. We also have the visitor’s center and the last territoral school was built here on the corner of K-Beach and Poppy Lane. We have the school there.”
More information about the Soldotna Historical Society can be found at SoldotnaMuseum.com. The public is encouraged to attend the membership meeting on February 29.